Religion: Are You a Jew?

Along Manhattan's Avenue of the Americas, across from Radio City Music
Hall, the young men in their black hats and beards stand poised for
action in the summer heat. "Are you Jewish?" they ask startled
passersby. "Racially Jewish," is the inaccurate reply of one tanned,
neatly barbered man. "But not religiously." "Yes," mutters another
hurrying by, "but I don't have time to stop." A middle-aged woman takes
the counteroffensive: "So what's all this about?" She waves in the
direction of a van parked near by, emblazoned with a banner reading
"Mitzvah Mobile." Inside,...